D*I*S*N*E*Y*L*A*N*D

***Warning picture overload! :) So many pictures, so hard to choose. It makes up for my blogging absence for the last little bit. And we just realized there's a fingerprint on the lens of our camera so some pictures came out smudgy... small little finger, wonder who that could be???

The Playhouse Disney Show, my girls loved it! We never miss an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Us dancing it up. Don't be too jealous, I've got years of dancing experience under my belt. :)

I really think Kadyn looks at all of us like we're all crazy :)
Kacey loves Goofy, but even more so (if at all possible) she loves Goofy's son Max. (Yeah, I know... he has a son, no wife, but a son). Anyway, we've never seen him, but randomly out of the blue, for the first time, we saw him at CA Adventure. I've never seen Matthew run so fast as to stop Max as I herded the girls over.

Kylie was chosen to go on stage as an "apprentice" for one of the shows, Matthew all but threw her 50 feet in the air for the guy to pick her out of the crowd. Afterwards, she got a signed sketch of Mickey Mouse to take home... really cool!

Too bad this picture was taken BEFORE the purchase of the Cars hat (for Matthew)- sense sarcasm... that my goofball of a husband actually wore the rest of the day around the park.

Goofy's Kitchen, definitely Kacey's highlight. She LOVES Goofy!

Grandpa and Goofy, a big kid at heart!

Kacey's ready to eat, can you tell?! :)

You know Kadyn's thinking, "Am I supposed to be in here?"

Just found this one, Kylie took it of herself.
That's her attempt at a wink.

Love that smile!

Kacey scared at something, I don't remember what.

So, every 20 minutes or so they do a little show in the center of Goofy's kitchen where all the kids get to go and play and have fun to the music. So we were ready and waiting. Kylie went running, ready to be front and center.


Kacey followed after her big sister, then realized she was scared and began running back... but Minnie came around the corner just at the right time, held her hand and played just with her! Kacey was in heaven.

Hugs goodbye, Kacey even gave Minnie a kiss. As they walked away from eachother, I saw Minnie stroke Kacey's head of curls. I thought it was sweet, as I do it all the time.

*********

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

Had to get a close up of Kylie's shoes. The night before, I was organizing the girls' shoes and rotating who could fit into what (this was after a MAJOR shoe shopping extravaganza so I felt like I needed to donate some old ones)... Anyway, amidst the organizing Kylie found these in her closet and loved them... needless to say, she insisted on wearing them the next day. She's got a shoe obsession. Not sure where that came from. Luckily they kinda matched their Sunday outfits.

Hilarious, Happy V-Day to the girls from Papa. They opened the heart shaped box of candy and totally dug in within seconds!

Headbands

So as a stay-at-home mom of 3 girls (none of which are in school yet), laundry that multiplies by the minute, seemingly endless ironing piles to do, meals that won't fix themselves, stacks of preschool homework with an anxious child holding a scissor, closets forever needing to be organized- ditto for the drawers, younger child running around asking for a scissor (after she's just finished coloring my wall) and never ending vacuuming and bathroom cleaning... obviously, (like all you other Moms out there) I find endless amounts of free-relaxing time during the day- NOT!!!

However to avoid the above dreary list, I've gotten a recent new priority: HEADBANDS!

My sweet little Kacey, she's got the most beautiful blond curls. I don't have to do anything to them, a little spritz of my very own concoction of fancy schmancy water and conditioner :) and I define her curls with my fingers... However, she doesn't have a whole lot of hair on the top or in the front of her head. Perfect solution: adorable headbands.

I've been accumulating my ribbon supply, buying headbands at the dollar store, matching cute color combos with button centers, and now has come the time to assemble. I guess my fingers just don't work with the small things like that, it's a good thing I'm not a surgeon. (I always thought I would've made a GREAT lawyer!- as I never apologize because I'm never wrong and I can talk my point until I'm blue in the face... I digress)

Maybe I don't have the patience to assemble, and maybe my mom just knows she'll do a better job..... SO my fabulously, wonderfully talented Mom did my slave labor and put all these together. I'm so excited, they are gorgeous... and we're (she's) still not done, I've got more ribbon and a few more headbeads to go. I love them, they came out super cute!!! I think I'm going to buy little suction hooks (you know, the kind that hang on shower tile) and put them on the huge mirror in the girls' bathroom, and hang the headbands on there.

****************

The outtakes of my precious -silly- middle child!

Can you tell she's trying to watch Goofy on the TV behind me?! But she's still smiling!

"Kacey look at me, EYES OPEN!" (Goofy apparently is still more interesting than me at this point)

Yeah, only took us 20 tries!

Lullaby and Goodnight

Once the big girls are settled into bed, Kadyn gets her one-on-one time. It makes me feel like I'm giving everyone enough attention in one given day... so nighttime is her time. And it works out good because the later she gets to bed, the longer she'll sleep through the night (mind you her bedtime is never later than 9:30 pm, but that's late in our house.... my how times have changed!!)

So here's little love bug in her crib ready for bed, bath hair and all! (I keep that blanket under her so when/if she spits up, I don't have to change the whole crib). I couldn't resist grabbing my camera tonight. She's been fussier than normal today, not sure if it's teething or just a runny nose/cold. But her smile's adorable. She's such a sweet little thing. I put on her music and she's got a little projection that does moons and stars on her ceiling, she loves it!!! Puts her right to sleep. And she always, always sleeps with those hands straight above her head. All night long, so funny!!!

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

I'm noticing in the pictures I have, Kadyn's almost always looking at Kylie. It's so funny, Kadyn's really in awe with her. I think when she sees Kacey it's more of a "Oh no please don't hurt me, Mommy you're close by, right?" Because Kacey's still at that age where she doesn't know she can't poke her in the eye. (when all she was doing was looking at her eyelashes- type of thing). But Kadyn knows that Kylie is great at meeting whatever need Kadyn has, and Kylie's always very happy to do so!

Anyway, Sunday afternoon pictures...

Kylie took this one, I love it... Kadyn's actually looking at the camera and smiling!

I think this is her first picture doing that!!!

This next one is funny. We've just gotten the girls into Mary Poppins, the girls really like it as you can see. They wanted to start the movie after lunch today- just before church, Matthew snuck up on them to get a picture.

Thankful Thursday

1. I won't do too much detail, most of you know... I found the best deal for sliced spiral ham... I was so excited. My garage freezer has about 20 9 pounders in there. ($.59 a pound!!!). I love me a good deal! So if I'm bringing dinner over to your house, chances are good it's gonna be ham!

2. Don't you just love it when someone helps you, without even asking if you need help or want it, they just do it! Don't you love it more when it's your child??!! I hate hate hate unloading the dishwasher. I don't know why, maybe because my mom never used the dishwasher so we never did it, so doing it now is just torture for me. But Kacey always helps. Never asks, she'll just hear me from her toy room and waltz over and start stacking the similar items on the counter... all the tupperware together, all her and her sisters plates and cups, all the big plates. I'll usually try to rescue the glass stuff first, but it's so sweet.

3. The smile Kadyn makes in the morning when I go get her. LOVE that little sparkly face! Like she's unsure if we're all still here, or maybe she hears us and is just thinking "I wonder if someone is going to ever come over to me." Her face could light up a room.

4. I was looking at Matthew's student program summary, I had no idea how close he was to being done! I guess we've always just thought that in the sometime distant future he'd be done with college and steadily he's working towards his degree... no way, we even have a date: Nov 16, 2009. I had no idea he was that close to being done, that was such an awesome surprise!!! (For those of you who don't know he went back to school after Kacey was born because the first time he went, he was confused in that his priority should have been his CLASSES and getting college credits not playing basketball)

5. I saw someone I hadn't seen in a while yesterday- she was in our other ward. She gave me such a wonderful comment. It made me feel so good :) I'll be relishing in it all week.

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

I had to grab my camera this morning while Kylie was in our bathroom getting ready. I heard her say, "Mom, I always color in the lines." So I looked up and lo and behold this is what I found.

Other children refer to coloring books, not my kid... she means her nails! :)

My favorite was when I told her to get her tights, I always help her get them on because she'd just yank them up with no tact whatsoever... and they'll rip. So I always help her do it. Well, her tights were on the floor so I told her to bring them over... she used her toes to grab them and walk, obviously because her nails are wet.

I just loved this one, Kacey's holding her lunchbag (treats for quiet sacrament time). Once I put goodies in the bag, she walks around with it all morning long... and heaven help anyone who tries to take it from her!!!

And finally, the family picture...

(Kylie blinked, Kacey kept running to see the picture after the beep, however that meant the picture was about to take so all our pictures are of her running toward the camera... so this was really the best we could do!)

Man*richment

My husband has coined the phrase, which he thinks should spread through the church like wildfire: MAN*richment. I think the next EQ activity, excuse me, man*richment is going to be playing video games.

ANYWAYS, I have a new definition of man*richment. It's the husbandly help to his wife's enrichment stuff. Look at him go....

Don't you love the line up all around him, like he's proud and showing them off!?!
I guess technically it's not enrichment stuff, sadly they are centerpieces for a funeral luncheon tomorrow. Brother Coleman use to be a basketball coach, so this was a sweet idea... not my idea (I can't take the credit), but I offered to help. And I would've done it, but I would have gotten dirty. And that's just not my style, especially when I have a husband to do that kind of stuff. So thank you dear! :)

Thankful Thursday

I couldn't decide on 5, so we went for 6 this week:

1. Kindess of a Child, in her own special way.... To preface: when I shower in the morning, I put Kylie and Kacey in Kacey's room to play. I put the gate up to keep Kacey in there and safe and Kylie can come and go as she pleases because she can climb over it. Yesterday, I shut my shower water and I hear the vacuum on (?) I immediately think something happened and Kylie's trying to cover up. I don't hear anyone crying (good sign). I walk out and Kylie's vacuuming the steps. Super sweet, I totally didn't even ask her to. She went into the spare bedroom, into the bathroom, into the closet, pulled out the right vacuum- there are a few to choose from, set it all up, plugged it in... all by herself... and she proceeded to vacuum and totally put it all away all by herself. And when she was done she asked me if that made me happy. Of course it did, so I made a big deal about it and felt badly that I assumed the worst. -- Story's not over--- an hour later, she's been on her best behavior and I think I've got the best kid ever and she goes, "Mom, I'm sorry I broke the bench." Then her face must have reacted to my face as I saw her face say something along the lines of, "oh crap, she still doesn't know." As I rush into Kacey's bedroom, and the little white Amish bench she had was in a few pieces. Hmmm, she said she was sorry although she blames her sister. Too late to get too bad, I think wood glue will fix it.... it was a cute little story although now I know to trust my Mom's instincts!


2. It's mine again- I'll preface again, having a baby is wonderful and I'm grateful for all 3 of my little ladies. However, it's so nice to just be me again. And I'm not referring to baby weight at all. From the moment of pregnancy to quiet a while after the baby is born, you feel different. Like you've subletted your body and someone else is living in it. It just doesn't feel right or the same, I now feel the same... my body is mine again and that's awesome!


3. Safety and Security- we've had too many "incidents" lately with crime in some surrounding areas. And it really doesn't matter where you live, crime is everywhere- that's how Matthew stays in business and he'll vouch that it's everywhere. Especially when the economy is down, unemployment is high... crime rate increases. But I'm thankful because I do feel safe and secure regardless of what's going on around me.


4. Husbandly help- one time this week, I was out for a while. And Matthew ended up doing all the laundry (I mean like folding it and putting it away too), unloaded the dishwasher, put the girls to bed, spoonfed the baby and gave her a bottle and put her to bed... now here's the kicker, he did all this WITHOUT being asked. I never even said anything, it was awesome and I didn't expect it. And while all you ladies understand, I'll spell it out to anyone else who might not be married, I'm making a huge deal about it so maybe he'll do it again! :) ---The funniest part was that when I talked to my mom the next day, she said that Matthew called her like 4 times: "can white tights go in the dryer?" or "do i mix the rice cereal with formula, and how much?" :)


5. Kacey's Anticipation for Goofy's Kitchen- our next disneyland trip is coming up again and this time we decided to go to Goofy's Kitchen. The last time we went Kacey was Kadyn's age, so we figured it was time... so Kacey's doesn't even remember it and she hasn't even seen pictures, but I think she's put 2 and 2 together and realized that all her favorite characters are going to be there and there's going to be food. Every morning, she asks if we are going today. Every night, she asks if we are going tomorrow. It's really cute. I can't wait to see her face when we're there. She LOVES Goofy and his son Max.

6. Maggie had a bad case of the runs, w/o being graphic, it was not pretty. But a quick trip to the Vet, $150 bucks later, and she's better. I'm thankful for that and my carpet is thankful for that!

Sunday Afternoon Pictures

Pretty in Pink

I love this one- it's like Where's Waldo with the same print everywhere :)Alot of time you miss how cute our shoes are, so we took one of our shoes!

***************

Thank you to Grandma Boyd for the dresses, we (I) appreciate her efforts as she indulges my obsession to dress all my girls the same!

***************

PS- Must not have learned my lesson the first time, as (in the ward prior to this one) I was -what seemed like an eternity- the enrichment counselor... as the new enrichment leader, please, Please, PLEASE feel free to pass along any fun ideas!